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Turn Off Filename Extension Warning

In Leopard, Apple fixed an annoying aspect of working with the Finder in Tiger. Previously, if you changed a file's extension, the Finder prompted for confirmation. But since no one has ever accidentally changed a filename extension, Apple thankfully added an option to turn that warning off in the Leopard Finder's preferences. Choose Finder > Preferences, and in the Advanced screen, deselect Show Warning Before Changing an Extension.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod News

After nearly three years, Apple has updated the iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle. The iPod touch receives updated innards and six new colors, plus a 128 GB model, whereas the iPod nano and iPod shuffle remain unchanged other than the new colors.

User experience company Nielsen Norman Group has posted an article pointing out problems with four official iOS interface patterns: page control dots, form submission links at the top, the plus icon, and the move icon. The authors aren’t speaking theoretically — these design patterns fail in actual usability testing — and they both give specific examples of each criticism and offer alternative approaches. In other words, if you’ve had trouble with an app that uses these interface controls, it’s not just you.

T-Mobile has announced two incentives for iPhone users. The first is that Apple Music will be included in its Music Freedom service, which means that streaming songs from Apple Music will not count against T-Mobile users’ bandwidth caps. The second is that anyone who has an iPhone 6 through the $15-per-month JUMP! On Demand program can trade up to the next iPhone for free until the end of 2015.

We have more Apple Music tips to share: how to create and share playlists, sorting out Apple Music tracks from the rest of your collection, catching up on Beats 1 shows, using Apple Music songs for alarms, and playing sound effects with Siri.

Many of our readers were concerned that iOS 8.4 removed Home Sharing for music (video Home Sharing is still there). The good news is that Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services, announced on Twitter that the company is working on bringing back Home Sharing for music in iOS 9. Keep your fingers crossed!

Apple has boosted its coverage of batteries for iOS devices and Apple Watches under AppleCare+. Apple will now replace batteries in covered devices that retain less than 80 percent of their capacity; previously, the company would replace batteries only if they held less than 50 percent of capacity.

READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS by becoming a member today!Check out the perks at <http://tidbits.com/member_benefits.html>Special thanks to J.D. Whitmire, Christian Zange, George
Alvarez-Correa, and Luis Donato for their generous support!

Apple recognized ten apps at this year’s Apple Design Awards, plus two student efforts. The winners include three apps we’ve reviewed in TidBITS: Fantastical, Robinhood, and Workflow. Also honored were the games Crossy Road, Does Not Commute, Metamorphabet, Shadowmatic, and Vainglory; Mac illustration app Affinity Designer; music mixing app Pacemaker; and student entries Elementary Minute and jump-O. Congratulations to all the winners!

Apple has announced iOS 9 with a number of refinements to iOS, improving the efficiency of the operating system, taking better advantage of the iPad’s screen size, adding intelligent features, and enhancing the built-in apps.

Yahoo has announced that it’s dropping two services for older Apple devices on 15 June 2015: Yahoo Mail in the built-in Mail app for devices running iOS 4 and earlier and Yahoo Contacts syncing support for Macs running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and earlier. Yahoo is also ending Yahoo Maps at the end of June, and will be discontinuing Yahoo Pipes on 30 August 2015, along with a few other services.

Apple has updated the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display to include a Force Touch trackpad, lowered prices on the iMac with Retina 5K display, and introduced a new iPhone dock with a Lightning connector.